Mobile Shoppers: 25 Minutes in Store, Fewer Come Back

Most mobile shoppers are spending more time in stores but not as
many are going back.

The percentage of shoppers who go into a store and leave relatively quickly is also on the rise, according to a new mobile tracking study.

Based on measuring tens
of millions of shopping trips by tracking the movement of smartphones at malls and stores, Euclid found that shoppers in April spent on average 25 minutes in a store.

This is measured by the
time a shopper goes into a store until they leave. For the same period last year, shoppers spent 23 minutes.

The somewhat good news for retailers is that some (13%) of shoppers came back to
the store more than once during April. The somewhat bad news is that the number is 2% lower than a year ago.

The tracking study also found a 10% decrease in overall shopper traffic and Euclid
estimates that general merchandise, apparel and furniture retail sales in April decreased by as much as 2%.

More mobile shoppers also appear to be going in and out of stores faster. One in 10
shoppers who entered a store left within five minutes, an increase from 8% last April.

The obvious implication is that merchants have a shorter time to convert these dabbling shoppers but a
significantly longer amount of time to deal with the majority.

This split reminds me of the difference between consumers who shop via mobile website vs. those who shop by app.

Many
retailers tell me most of their commerce comes from the mobile Web, just like most shoppers spend a longer period of time in a store.

Merchants also say their commerce app users tend to be
loyal customers, those looking for a richer experience with deeper ties to the brand.

I’m not sure this correlates to those who go in and out of a store more quickly than most, but the
result of the dichotomy between those who spend shorter times in stores than most highlights a similar dilemma.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for how retailers deal with mobile
shoppers, who continually tend to find new ways to use their mobile devices to research, compare, shop and transact.

Though maybe not welcome news for retailers, they need to be investing in
and resourcing all of the above.

Sigh. When smartphones started, they were owned by a few rich adults. Since then, they have got cheaper and steadily replaced dumb cellphones, until now they are the majority. Over this period, the demographics of smartphone owners have changed each year - e.g. more are children and they have less money on average. So any attempt to draw conclusions for retailers, based on headline numbers, seems doomed.

Chuck Martin is editor of the mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk. He is a NY Times Business bestselling author of "Mobile Influence" and “The Third Screen.” He is currently working on a new book titled “The Internet of Everything” (IoE). He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and a frequent keynote speaker internationally. Follow him on Twitter @chuckmartin and contact him at Chuck@MediaPost.com.